Epress.am News from Armenia
More than 550 protesters were detained by riot police on Tuesday evening in the Russian capital, the second protest in as many days in protest at Sunday’s parliamentary polls, The Telegraph reports.
Putin’s party won the polls with a sharply reduced majority, amid signs his popularity might be on the wane. The opposition insists that the results would have been even worse for the ruling party if the polls had been run fairly.
International organizations have also criticized the conduct of the polls. OSCE-led observers said they were slanted in favour of United Russia and marred by procedural violations.
Internet-based protesters vowed further demonstrations despite a warning by police that participants in unsanctioned protests would be arrested.
A group “for honest elections” said on its Facebook page that a new demonstration would take place in central Moscow on Saturday afternoon. More than 5,000 members of the Facebook group have already promised to attend.
Another social networking group, calling itself “Against the party of swindlers and thieves” – the opposition’s slogan for United Russia –, said protests would now take place every day at 7 pm local time.
“When the authorities have stolen honest elections from the people, we can only defend our rights on the street,” it said.
Meanwhile, two leaders of Monday’s protests in downtown Moscow against alleged election fraud, anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny and opposition activist Ilya Yashin, were given short jail terms on Tuesday for refusing to obey police orders, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.
Navalny and Yashin, considered “prisoners of conscience” by Amnesty International, were sentenced to 15 days behind bars by a court the day after taking part in a 5,000-strong rally Monday.
Recall, a total of 300 protesters were detained during Monday’s rally. Police moved against the rally after Yashin urged protesters to move towards the Kremlin.
After the sentence was declared for Yashin, the opposition activist said protests will continue.
“All those sentences will only make people even more indignant. These authorities will have to leave sooner or later as they are acting illegitimately,” Yashin said, while his defense said the Tverskoi Court will consider an appeal on his 15-day jail term on Wednesday.